Conference: Bi- and multilingual universities

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Bi- and multilingual universities 2007
Short Title: BiMU 07

Date: 20-Sep-2007 - 22-Sep-2007
Location: Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
Contact Person: Chiara Moser
Meeting Email: bimu07 at unibz.it
Web Site: http://www.unibz.it/bi-and-multilingual-universities-2007


Call Deadline: 28-Feb-2014


The conference aims at bringing together scholars, instructors, university
leaders and administrative personnel working in bi- and multilingual
universities, so as to provide them with terrain for scientific and
didactic discussion, comparison of practices, approaches and results and
networking opportunities. It will give particular emphasis to bottom-up,
application-oriented research, as well as to the critical analysis of
practices and policies; a major objective will be to highlight current
best practices, but also obstacles and limits faced by multilingual
universities across Europe.

Topics will include (required and targeted) student language competence,
autonomous learning, CLIL and analysis of academic discourse, English as
lingua franca, cost and benefits of institutional multilingualism and
minority langauges and higher education.

Bi- and multilingual universities 2007: European perspectives and beyond

Call for papers

The international conference ''Bi- and multilingual universities 2007:
European perspectives and beyond'', will be hosted by the Free University
of Bozen-Bolzano from 20 to 22 September 2007.  Our goal is continuation
of the discussion on multilingual higher education initiated by the 1st
conference on bi- and multilingual universities held in Fribourg/Freiburg
in 2003 and subsequently continued with the 2nd conference in Helsinki
2005, ''Bi- and multilingual universities: European perspectives and
beyond'' in Bolzano will place particular emphasis on bottom-up,
application-oriented research, as well as on the critical analysis of
practices and policies on the one hand and on the promotion of exchange of
experiences and information on the other. Furthermore, a major objective
of the conference will be to highlight current best practices, but also
obstacles and limits faced by multilingual universities across Europe and
to place them against the background of the language policy adopted by the
EU to promote functional multilingualism in society.

Topics:

The multi-faceted nature of multilingual higher education is a well known
reality for students, educators, scholars, administrators and university
leaders acting in environments where two or more languages are used in
informal every-day communication, teaching and learning, decision-taking,
planning, negotiating. While such a reality may be seen, perceived and
tackled from different perspectives representing focus and priorities of
different subjects, it is clear that all of them are strongly
interconnected, and that solutions to problems can be only found within
interdisciplinarity and interaction. The issue of English as a medium of
instruction and as lingua franca, for instance, involves not only
questions of international standards and certifications, but also the
consideration of the communicative habits of the single disciplines;
planning coaching measures for subject-matter instructors can be based on
established CLIL-experiences and profit from investigations into academic
communicative styles; discussing the kind of competence required of
prospective students and to be reached by graduating students has to take
into account the needs of workplaces but also to establish solid links
with secondary education prior to university.  Following such
considerations, the conference will be broken down into thematic areas
that will allow participants to explore in detail those varied points of
view, to compare them and to relate them to each other, so as to gain a
comprehensive overview that includes didactical, scientific,
organizational, economic and policy aspects of multilingual higher
education.

We welcome contributions on following topics:

- Language competence of incoming and outgoing students: language
	assessment, certifications, quality standards
- Autonomous learning and extra-curricular measures
- English as language of instruction and as lingua franca
- Schools and workplaces: synergies with higher education
- CLIL, coaching for subject-matter instructors, analysis of academic
	discourse (lecturer and student communicative practices)
- Minority languages and higher education
- The administration perspective: costs and benefits of institutional
	multilingualism
- Institutional language policies and everyday practices: case studies

Abstracts:

Proposals for presentations should not exceed 2000 characters (about 300
words), and can be presented in English, German, Italian, French or
Spanish. Each contribution will be given a 30-minutes slot (20-minute
presentation and 10-minute discussion).

Presentations in languages other than English are highly encouraged; in
order to make the use of such languages feasible by ensuring mutual
comprehension, we suggest the adoption of bilingual communication (for
instance, speech in the chosen language and visual presentation and/or
hand-out in English).

Submission: http://pro.unibz.it/abstract/index.aspx?LanguageID=EN&
Conference website:
http://www.unibz.it/bi-and-multilingual-universities-2007

Important dates:

February 28, 2007 - submission deadline
April 2, 2007 - notification of acceptance
April 15, 2007 - early registration deadline
April 16-September 10 - standard registration
September 20-22 - conference; on-site registration


Scientific committee:

Anne-Claude Berthoud (Lausanne)
Jasone Cenoz (Basque Country)
Lucie Courteau (Bozen-Bolzano)
Liliana Dozza (Bozen-Bolzano
Rita Franceschini (Bozen-Bolzano)
Mirja Saari (Helsinki)

Local organising committee:

Christoph Nickenig (Bolzano-Bozen)
Daniela Veronesi (Bolzano-Bozen)

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